Why Escaping to the Beach Is Always a Good Idea

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."

Khalil Gibran

Exactly one week after my mother's funeral, my family and I headed to the Cape for our summer vacation. We had rented a rambling, five-bedroom antique in Chatham months earlier, when it looked likely that my mom would fully recover from the fractured shoulder that put her into, and out of, the hospital and physical therapy rehab center. But months into her new reality, of hospitals, assisted living centers and physical and occupational therapy centers, she contracted a virus from her roommate, the side effects from which both of them would never recover.

So it was with deep emotional pangs that we drove to the island, the pull of the water and of just getting away from the world for a while being stronger than the pull to stay in bed with the curtains drawn to keep out the summer's sun. Our four kids were all bringing their beaus, so ten of us would fill this cavernous place, set on three acres where God's grace was bestowed a couple hundred years ago. A five-minute bike ride from one of the most glorious views on earth, the hilltop sight of Eastward Ho! Country Club, confirmed that we had, indeed, made a good decision to go meet nature while we tried to heal our souls.

Reports coming in from a variety of government agencies and the financial press tout statistics stating that American families are either canceling summer vacation plans entirely or changing them in order to offset the rising cost of gasoline. Here in Connecticut, we've long seen prices in the $4.00-plus range. It's $5.00/gallon gasoline that gets our stomachs in knots. Across the country, Americans are wrestling with how to keep our summer vacations, a virtually sacred time in our family calendars intact, while at the same time coping with rising costs of simply getting there, not to mention astounding unemployment numbers, falling home prices and increased volatility in the capital markets. James Hamilton, an economics professor at the University of California, San Diego, claims that "every 50-cent jump in the cost of gasoline takes $70 billion out of the U.S. economy over the course of a year. That's about one half of one percent of gross domestic product." (1) Stories abound of families switching to a rice-and-bean diet and of a shift to flea market shopping in order to keep that sacrosanct summer vacation on the calendar.

Let's face it: we all know instinctively what scientists have been telling us for years. Taking a vacation provides enormous emotional and physical benefits. In a 2000 analysis involving more than 12,000 35 to 57 year-old men at high risk for coronary heart disease, the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial found that those who took regular yearly vacations had a lower risk of death than those who worked all the time. (2) It has been shown in study after study that women who take two vacations a year are less likely to have heart problems than those who take one vacation every six years. Other studies show a link between healthier relationships and vacations. Psychologists studying the link between personal happiness and vacation find positive correlation. People who use this time away to pamper themselves, explore a new hobby, or re-engage with family and friends are far more likely to increase their happiness quotient.

We can actually feel the physiological changes in our bodies when we start to de-stress. Simply un-plugging for a week, purposefully not checking voice mail or email, allowing myself to sleep in and skip that early morning gym ritual, avoiding the news on tv and in the financial press: all worked miracles on both my physical and emotional health.

Today's Wall Street Journal highlights the notion of the "unlimited vacation." It is, essentially, vacation in turbo-charged mode. Employees are on their own to self-discipline how much, when and where to take time off and away from the office. The writer asserts that Americans are not likely to take the needed time off, even when those days are assigned to them. In fact, only 38% of American employees use every day of their assigned vacation days, according to a survey by Expedia.com. Fear of losing face time, of being downsized and of coming back to hundreds of unanswered emails leave many would-be vacationers stuck in the office cubicle.

I would propose that the benefits of a vacation far outweigh these potential negative side effects. It shouldn't take a family crisis to put you on the beach. This year posed extraordinarily difficult challenges for my brother and sister and me, as well as for our own spouses and children. We are all still reeling from its aftermath. But you are likely not in the same state of mind or body. I cannot encourage you enough to take the time this summer to get away. To find a slice of earth that brings you closer to heaven.

Let this quote from Eleonora Duse move you:

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,

if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you,

if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,

rejoice, for your soul is alive."

Happy trails!

NOTES:

(1): "Gas Tanks Draining Family Budgets," The Associated Press, May 27, 2011, p. 2 http://www.gatorsports.com/article/20110527/WIRE/110529539/-1/news300?p=2&tc=pg

(2) Van Dusen, Allison. (2007) "Ten Healthy Reasons to Take a Vacation." Forbes.com, August, p. 1. http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/02/vacation-work-summer-forbeslife-cx_avd_0806health.html

Carolina Fernandez works as a Registered Independent Advisor in Private Wealth Management. She holds the Series 7; Series 66 (63 and 65); Life, Accident and Health Insurance Licenses, including Long Term Care; and Alternative Investments and Guided Portfolio Management Certifications. She primarily works with Art & Entertainment Professionals and entrepreneurs in the creative communities. She holds her licenses with Source Capital Group, a boutique independent investment bank and brokerage headquartered in Westport, CT. Previously, she worked at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Merrill Lynch, and Dupree & Co., a municipal bond house in Lexington, Kentucky, where she cut her teeth in the industry in 1983 selling municipal bonds and government securities to institutional clients.

The author of two books, ROCKET MOM! and Country French Kitchens, she is currently working on What Color is Your Handbag? This book will be the first to explore the roles of gender, personality and neuroeconomics and hopes to explain money in language so that every woman "gets" money. A contributing writer for more than sixteen years, her articles have been syndicated by more than 60,000 unique online sites, blogs and newsletters. Her work has been quoted by Parenting, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Nickelodeon, NewsDay, BottomLine Personal and Advertising Age and featured on dozens of radio and TV programs nationwide, including the FOX Business News program Your World with Neil Cavuto.

She is the Founder of the SHEeO Network ( http://www.SheEONetwork.com ); they now number more than 350 women strong. She is also a Co-Founder of Women in Power, a Connecticut-based non-profit group that is devoted to educating women in entrepreneurship.

Carolina believes in giving back and swims every year in the 1.5 mile Open Water Swim for Swim Across America in honor of her son, a leukemia survivor.

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